And so with the event in Europe of the last three weeks, their hand is revealed:
Our elites are attempting a controlled demolition of the old post-war social and economic order in the West. And with it, they hope, will go the political system.
I think we all had faintly dark fantasies about what gets discussed at Davos, at G-8/20 summits, at Aspen, at Bilderberg -- yep, I just went there. But, let's face it. If big business, private equity, billionaires and government officials had something to say that was legitimately in the interest of the people, they'd say it in public, not at a secret or semi-secret conference.
Conspiracy theory?
Who knows.
But it is clear that the interests of the elite class have diverged sharply from that of regular folks -- and that this class has wrested enough political, economic, institutional and social control in Western countries to make it possible for them act on their interests with disregard for the rest of us.
It doesn't have to be a calculated conspiracy -- just people of similar minds, shared interests and massive resources intending to do what is best for themselves, operating synergistically outside the eroding democratic structures that used to protect us.
In the new world of one dollar, one vote -- I get to vote my wallet. All four figures of what is in my checking account.
The elites get to vote their wallets, too. Their personal millions or billions, the money in the IMF and World Bank, the money creation powers of the central banks, the spending powers of the sovereign treasuries that they control.
It's all fair, right?
And if I want the power they have, I just have to work really hard and I'll be rewarded! Or so they say.
I've been thinking all weekend:
What now? What now?
What the elites want is a controlled demolition. They want to boil the frog slowly enough that it doesn't know it's being cooked.
Oh, I know that no one individual actually thinks in these terms. The desire is an aggregate -- the sum of many powerful people protecting their own interests and moving to take gain after gain without incurring risk and without disrupting the wealth-extraction system that they have set up.
I think that the crisis in Europe will show us whether they have gone too far or whether the game is still under control.
If European political and economic elites lose control of the game there -- sovereign defaults, withdrawals from the Euro, a currency collapse -- we might catch a break.
But there's another possibility on the horizon. This is that Merkel and Sarkozy will be able to push through an expansion of European-level powers over fiscal and economic policy. Put this in the context of appeals for "political clarity" by IMF chief Lagarde and others and I see a perfect storm brewing of centralization and de-democratization of political power, to the end of protecting the interests of finance over humans.
Oh -- there is no new European despot lurking on the horizon. Heavens, no. But we might see some fairly dramatic shifting of power designed to keep the con rolling for as long as possible.
And here in the U.S.? More austerity, more neglect, more punishment of regular people. No one has any other plan. Anything else would hurt the ability of the one percent of extract wealth from the rest of us.
Whatever happens, it sure looks gloomy out there.